You watched the trailer before "Mamma Mia!" or whatever and groaned. Kevin Costner, you thought, what have you wrought upon us now?

In "Swing Vote," one guy decides the outcome of a presidential election. He doesn't know or care about politics, but the candidates stoop to new lows to court him. Bud, oblivious and unshaven, laughs merrily through it all.

The movie asks its audience to suspend disbelief on one thing: its entire premise. But if you're willing to jump that logistical hurdle, you're home free. The ridiculous setup is just the skeleton for something more substantial; the flesh of the movie is made of the funny, tender interactions between Bud and his daughter, Molly.

In Texaco, N.M., times are hard, and Ernest "Bud" Johnson (Costner) just lost his job at a poultry processing plant. Molly (Madeline Carroll) made Bud promise to vote, but he gets drunk and passes out in his truck instead. This chick is tough, smart and capable -- so it's all the more tragic when we see her angry tears as she waits for Bud at the polling place. That's what makes us watch, this undercurrent of sadness in what's meant to be a comedy.

Bud, so used to being a nobody, gets caught up in the attention paid to him by the two candidates, Democrat Donald Greenleaf (an unmemorable Dennis Hopper) and Republican President Andrew Boone (Kelsey Grammer, who still can't manage to be funny without being neurotic). In the end, it's Molly's idealism that saves Bud. Under her tutelage, he starts to focus on the issues, starts to press the candidates for answers. (No actual answers are offered.)

Though it manages to avoid the one-liners and cheap gags that political comedies of the past have relied on, Costner still lays it on thick, flailing and grunting in his role as a dumb, drunk redneck.

Bud becomes a political pundit overnight, and we're meant to take his transformation as some sort of panacea. The larger issues that the movie tosses out there (poverty, immigration, health insurance) are swept under the carpet by one of Bud's goofy grins. There are also some racist riffs on Mexican immigrants.

Oh, and the ending bites.

So what can we say? The film's not nearly as idiotic as its trailer made it seem, because it's not really about voting, or politics. It's actually about a girl and her dad, and loving your family no matter how drunk and asinine they may be.

-- Laura Yao (Aug. 1, 2008)

Contains strong language.